A volunteer lifeboatman paged after finishing a night shift was amazed to discover he was being sent to rescue his own father.
George Hodge, a member of the Anstruther lifeboat crew, said he will not allow dad Brian to forget Saturday morning’s incident in a hurry, despite the relief that all ended well.
It was the first time the 25-year-old had been called out to rescue a member of his own family in eight years as a volunteer.
He was paged at 6am, three hours after heading home for some sleep following a shift at local pigment coating company, Metaflake.
It was only as the D-class boat was launching that he discovered he was about to come face-to-face with his dad.
Brian had been out fishing when a rope from a creel became wrapped around his boat’s propellor.
A spokesman for Anstruther Lifeboat said Brian had not been in any danger but had been unable to get his boat to move.
“It’s quite a common thing, which isn’t a surprise when you think of all the creels off the coast here,” said.
“He wasn’t drifting anywhere. He just didn’t have any means of getting back to shore.”
George and the rest of the crew reached the stricken man within a few minutes and managed to release him.
George, the eldest of five children but the only one to work with the lifeboat, joined his dad on board his boat and assisted him back to the sanctuary of Anstruther harbour.
The lifeboat spokesman added: “As much as George and his fellow crew members enjoyed helping Brian safely back to Anstruther, the serious nature of what the RNLI do cannot be forgotten.
“If you are in difficulty, please contact the coastguard, just like Brian did, and request assistance from the assets we have available.
“Unlike Brian, you will not lose family bragging rights and have additional chores as payback for our help!”
George is not the first member of the Anstruther lifeboat crew to combine family life with the voluntary job.
In April, volunteer Vicki Munro had children Danny, four, and seven-month-old Daisy Christened on board the lifeboat.
